Over the past several years, Allison Orr's Forklift Danceworks has staged performances featuring, among others, roller skaters, Elvis impersonators, and sanitation workers. The Trash Project, the large-scale performance they produced with the City of Austin Sanitation Department, won multiple awards and was the subject of the documentary film Trash Dance.
Their latest production, Power UP is, like The Trash Project before it, a partnership with an Austin public works department. It features dozens of workers from all parts of Austin Energy, and many of their vehicles as well. The dance features linemen, electricians, bucket trucks, utility poles and more, and is based upon the day-to-day activities of the workers themselves.
Original music for Power UP, like many of Forklift's works, was composed by Graham Reynolds; the live orchestra will be conducted by the Austin Symphony's Peter Bay (himself a former Forklift Danceworks performer, having danced in Solo Symphony).
The dance we be performed two nights only, Saturday, September 21 and Sunday, September 22, at the Travis County Expo Center. Tickets are free, but reservations are required and can be made at the Forklift Danceworks website.
